Memories
by bananacupcake
Summary: Years have passed since the curse has been lifted. The members of the zodiac have moved on with their lives, and now have families of their own. This is the story of their children, and their journeys. Together, the children of the zodiac remember the past, make memories of the new, and find happiness and love for themselves.


Hello! I've decided to start this story again: the story of the zodiac's children! I don't know Fruits Basket. Please enjoy and leave reviews!

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**Part 1: Seiya's POV**

It had been a few days since we'd settled into our new home in Tokyo.

It was strange to live in a new place when I had only lived in one place my entire life. Instead of hearing crashing waves and the smelling the salty sea from my bedroom window as I had before, I listened to the sounds of evening traffic. We always visited Tokyo to see family for New Years and a few other holidays, but living in the city was different. If felt like everyone else was always moving forward with some sort of agenda, while here I was: lost in the sea of it all. A foreigner to the chaos.

_Otou_-san was the _shishou_ of a dojo here in Tokyo now. He had been a sensei at a small dojo near our old home, but he had gotten a job offer to teach martial arts at a prestigious academy in the city. _Okaa-_san was in the process of getting another cookbook published, and with the publishing firm located in Tokyo, moving just seemed like a better fit for everyone. Plus, we would be living closer to the rest of the Sohma family, who _Okaa_-san missed more than she showed.

I knew I should be happier that everything had worked out so well, but I couldn't help but feel misplaced.

I lay on the futon in my new room, staring at the bare white walls that I hadn't bothered decorating yet. Maybe I never would. The hot summer breeze ruffled my curtains as it came through the open window, making the room feel stuffy and warm.

I let out a sigh and pushed myself up, throwing on a gray t-shirt before exiting my new bedroom. I slid the door shut behind me and stepped down the hallway, peeking through the half-open door of my twin sister's room.

She stood on top of her bed, on the very tips of her toes, attempting to hang a picture on the wall. Her long, bright orange hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She blew a piece of her bangs out of her face with a small, frustrated huff as she failed to reach the nail _Otou_-san had hammered into her wall earlier for hanging pictures. Our family cat, Maru, sat at the end of her bed, watching her with his large yellow eyes.

I chuckled softly, "Sakura, you're so small."

"Seiya-_nii_-chan!" she said, turning around with a smile on her face, "You're awake! How was your nap?"

"Not so good." I said as I stepped into her room, looking around. It seemed she had been decorating the entire time I had been laying down in my room. She had the pink paper lanterns I had gotten her for our birthday last year hung up in the corner, and a collage of magazine cut-outs made up of models and clothing covered a portion of the wall beside her bed.

"Why not?" she asked, a small frown on her face. She reached out for me and I helped her down from her bed, taking the framed picture from her hand.

"Didn't sleep at all," I stepped up on her bed and easily hung the picture from the nail, "I was thinking too much."

I took a moment to study the picture she had chosen to hang over her bed frame, and couldn't help but smile. It was a slightly blurry photo of us when we were small, holding hands and smiling with our backs to the ocean, the waves lapping at our little toes.

"Where did you find this picture, anyway?" I asked, turning around and plopping down on Sakura's bed. I reached over to pet Maru, who started purring with happiness.

She sat in the middle of her floor, a small wooden box open in front of her, "I found this in one of the boxes Papa put in the attic today. It's a bunch of pictures of us when we were small, and there's a lot of Mama and Papa when they were younger, too."

I moved down to the floor beside her, Maru following and curling up in Sakura's lap. I ruffled through the box full of pictures, and pulled out a photo of our mother and father in school uniforms. _Otou_-san had his arm around _Okaa_-san and was looking at her with soft eyes. _Okaa_-san's cheeks were flushed a soft pink. They looked so happy.

"Ah, it's Mama and Papa when they were in high school!" Sakura said, leaning against my side and looking at the picture, "That must have been…"

"After the curse was broken," I said softly.

Sakura nodded quietly in agreement, resting her head against my arm.

_Otou_-san and _Okaa_-san had always told us the story of the zodiac animals when we were younger. Sakura and I enjoyed it so much that we often couldn't go to sleep without hearing it. Sakura had always cried when _Okaa_-san reached the part where the cat was tricked by the rat and unable to attend the banquet. She was always quickly comforted again when _Okaa_-san explained that the cat had eventually found his place among the rest of the zodiac animals, and that everything was okay now.

I had felt sad for the cat. It wasn't his fault, it was the rat's. I would fall asleep wishing that the cat could get his revenge on the rat somehow for all the pain he had caused.

It wasn't until a few years ago that Sakura and I had learned that the story was real.

_Otou_-san and _Okaa_-san sat us down and explained the Sohma family curse. They explained how the spirit of each zodiac animal cursed a member of our family, and how they would turn into their zodiac animal when embraced by a member of the opposite sex or when under physical fatigue. They explained how there was one person born as God, whose purpose was to control each member of the zodiac. They explained how the cat was restricted from Sohma house, unable to attend the banquet each year, and hated.

_Otou_-san was the cat.

It had come as a surprise. Sakura had burst out in tears. I was in shock.

They explained the cat's other form, and the purpose of the beads _Okaa_-san kept in a bowl beside her thirteen zodiac figurines. They explained _Otou_-san and Yuki's long-term feud. They explained _Okaa_-san's seemingly-hopeless goal to help every zodiac member; especially our father. They explained how difficult life had been for those under the curse.

Then, they explained how the curse had been lifted.

I asked _Otou_-san some time later, as we trained together in the dojo together, how he wasn't resentful of the rat. He said he had been extremely bitter for years, to the point where his hatred had nearly blinded him from seeing everything that was good in his life. He had felt hated and purposeless, but he didn't feel that way now. The curse was broken. He and Yuki were equals. He was happy.

Three years had passed since Sakura and I had been told of the Sohma family's dark secret. It still felt surreal at times how the story we had loved so much growing up was such a big part of our lives, and we hadn't even known it.

I looked from the picture of _Otou_-san and _Okaa_-san that I held in my hands, the happiness and love evident on their faces, and felt lucky to be the child of two amazingly strong people.

Sakura took the picture from my hands and gave me a small smile. I could tell by the sad look in her golden eyes that she had been remembering the same thing.

"Seiya-_nii_, you're looking more and more like Papa every day," Sakura perked up, breaking us both from our thoughts. She studied the photo of our parents closely, "You look just like him in this picture."

"You think so?" I looked down at the photo she held in her small hands, studying our father's bright orange hair, golden-orange eyes, and tan complexion.

"Mhmmm," she hummed, setting the picture down and grabbing another picture of us when we were younger. It was our first day of nursery school. We wore matching jackets and stuck out our tongues for the camera. "Except you have Mama's brown eyes."

"And you have _Otou_-san's eyes," I said, patting Sakura's head.

She smiled and stood up, grabbing a roll of tape off of her desk and sticking the picture of us on an empty spot in another collage by her bed. It was filled mostly with pictures of us throughout the years, and a few pictures of her old friends back home.

"_Nii_-chan, what were you thinking about during your nap?" she asked, turning back to me and giving me a worried look.

I patted the spot beside me for her to sit down. I started shuffling through the box of pictures, and let out a small sigh, unsure of how to formulate my response so that it would make sense. Maru had moved onto my lap now, and I began petting him as he flicked his bushy orange tail back and forth, "I don't know, I just…I know I should be happy that things are going so well, but…"

"It doesn't feel like home here." Sakura finished for me, sitting down beside me and crossing her legs.

Maybe it was the fact that we were twins and knew each other better than anyone else, or maybe it was just because Sakura was a lot more articulate with her words than I was, but my twin sister always knew exactly what to say. I couldn't hide anything from my twin sister, no matter how hard I tried.

"Exactly. Is this our twin connection or is it just obvious?" I asked, running a hand through my bright orange hair and picking up a picture from the bottom of the box. It was of the four of us at the beach, when Sakura and I were small. _Otou_-san held Sakura in his arms, both smiling for the camera with their golden-orange eyes gleaming in the sunlight. _Okaa_-san was crouched down beside me, her arms wrapped around me. Her long brown hair was flowing behind her in the wind and her warm brown eyes were full of happiness. We were looking at each other, not the camera, and smiling big.

"I think it's a little of both," Sakura said, looking at the picture I held in my hands with a small smile on her face, "But you're just easy to read in general."

I gave her a playful nudge with my shoulder and she giggled.

"What about you?" I asked, looking at my twin sister with concern. Even though she was just ten minutes younger than me, she had always seemed so small and fragile. Sakura had never been one to show exactly what she was feeling on her face, like I was. She often put on a smile and kept her complaints to herself.

Sakura brought her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees, "I'm really happy that Mama and Papa are happy, but…I'm sad that we moved. I miss our old house and the ocean and our friends. I just didn't want to make Mama and Papa upset or make the move stressful."

"At least we feel the same way," I said, patting her on the back softly, "You're just better at hiding it than I am."

"It'll get better," Sakura said, smiling up at me, "We'll make new memories here and be happy, right?"

"Of course we will." I said, not knowing whether I was saying it just to comfort her or convince myself. I had my doubts about what was in store for us here in Tokyo. The city felt cramped and overcrowded. The air wasn't crisp, and the sea wasn't just a walk away. But it was our new home, and Sakura was right. We had to make the most out of it.

A car horn blared outside, breaking us from our thoughts. Sakura and I both jumped. Maru leaped from his place on the floor beside us and ran out of the room, his bushy tail prickling up from fright. Sakura and I looked at each other and started laughing.

"We'll all just have to get used to it," I chuckled, "Especially Maru."

"Seiya-_nii_ looking on the bright side?" Sakura giggled, "Who are you and what have you done with my twin brother?"

I reached out and ruffled her hair, happy that in this new city, I had my twin sister and best friend all wrapped up into one right by my side.

"I'm glad you kids are laughing," came a deep voice from the doorway, and Sakura and I looked up to see our father, dressed in his martial arts uniform, "It makes this place feel more like home." He ran a hand over his bright orange hair and leaned against the doorframe, smiling in at us.

I idolized my father.

He'd been teaching me everything he knew about martial arts since even before I was old enough to take my first class. But it wasn't only his martial art skills that made me want to make _Otou_-san proud, it was the man he was. He had patience, sincerity, and an amazing heart.

I hoped to have all of these traits one day to make him proud to call me his son.

"Papa!" Sakura hopped up from her spot beside me on the floor and raced to _Otou_-san, wrapping her arms around him.

I smiled as he squeezed Sakura tight and kissed the top of her head, and wondered for a moment how much of our conversation he'd heard before announcing himself. I stood up and moved towards _Otou_-san, who pulled me in with his free arm and ruffled my hair, a smile on his face.

"Your _Okaa_-san just got home from meeting with her publisher. We're gonna start dinner, why don't you two come down and keep us company?" he asked, one arm around each of us.

"Of course!" Sakura smiled up at _Otou_-san, and made her way into the hallway towards the stairs, "And then you have to tell us all about your day at the dojo, Papa!"

"It wasn't that interesting," _Otou_-san said softly and chuckled. He squeezed my shoulder before he turned to go after Sakura, "C'mon, son."

I followed _Otou_-san and Sakura down the stairs, and into the kitchen, where _Okaa_-san stood over the counter chopping vegetables. Her chocolate brown eyes lit up when the three of us entered, and a big smile came over her face, "Sakura-chan, Seiya-kun, I missed you two so much today!"

"Mama!" Sakura raced to our mother's side, snuggling up to her, "Let me help you with dinner."

I walked towards our mother and wrapped my arms around her. She was a petite woman; I had easily surpassed her in height by the time I was thirteen. Now at fifteen, I stood nearly a head taller than her. But she was the strongest, most amazing woman I knew, and an even more amazing mother. I pulled away and smiled back at her, looking into the brown eyes that were so much like my own, "We missed you, _Okaa_-san."

_Okaa_-san smiled and pushed my bangs back gently, "Are you two settling into the new house alright?"

Sakura had picked up a knife and begun to carefully chop carrots into little squares. She had always found her way around the kitchen easily, taking after _Okaa_-san's cooking abilities. I sadly couldn't say the same; I was clumsier in the kitchen than anywhere else. Instead of helping prep dinner, which would have ended up catastrophic, I moved to one of the many cardboard boxes piled up by the wall and began searching for the dinner china. Maru roamed in and rubbed himself against my ankles, purring loudly.

"We're adjusting," Sakura said softly, looking at our mother with a smile on her face. She pushed a loose strand of hair from her ponytail behind her shoulder with her free hand, "Seiya-_nii_ was helping me decorate my room just now."

I looked up, a white serving dish in my hands, just in time to see the slight uncertainty pass over my sister's golden eyes. In a moment it was gone, replaced with a smile. I could tell Sakura was more uneasy about the move than she was willing to share, just like I was.

I set the serving plate on the counter and couldn't help but smile as _Otou_-san leaned down and gave _Okaa_-san a quick kiss. _Okaa_-san's cheeks flushed a soft pink, and I thought back to the photograph of the two of them in high school. They still loved each other as much as they had back then. Their happiness had never faded.

I busied myself with unpacking the dishes we needed for dinner, listening as Sakura told _Otou_-san and _Okaa_-san about the box of old photographs she had found and _Otou_-san and _Okaa_-san told stories about their days.

Even though our new house was smaller than our old home, and even though the sounds of evening traffic came through the windows, even though the ocean wasn't a block away, and even though I felt out of place in this new city, I realized then that it didn't matter.

"And Seiya? How was your day?" _Otou_-san asked, coming to my side to help unload the china. He smiled, his golden-orange eyes warm, and put a hand on my shoulder.

Looking up to see the smiling faces of my parents and my twin sister made the uncertainty vanish. It didn't matter we were in a new place, with a new house, and surrounded by new people. As long as I had the three people I loved the most, it didn't matter where we were. Home was here, with them.

"It was good," I said, a smile on my face, "I think I'm starting to like it here."

I thought back to what Sakura said, this time with no doubt in my mind; we'd make new memories and be happy here. Together.


End file.
